Large systems often include monitoring subsystems that permit one or more operators to monitor the performance of the system in general, and to specifically monitor the state of one or more parameters of the large system. In some instances, the manner in which the monitoring subsystem delivers information to the operator can become problematic.
An example of such a monitoring subsystem is the AUTOPLEX® Maintenance CRT (MCRT) monitoring system marketed by Lucent Technologies Inc. as a tool for use with its various wireless telephony systems. The AUTOPLEX® MCRT monitoring system includes a user interface by which an operator can input a request for information concerning a parameter of the wireless telephony system. In response, the AUTOPLEX® MCRT monitoring system displays the desired information on a video screen. As the capabilities of the AUTOPLEX® MCRT monitoring system have grown, so has the amount of information that it can display per screen.
A typical display screen partitions the viewing area into regions that have a predefined association with a parameter. The combination of attributes of a region is understood to be an indicator of the characteristics of the parameter. Typical indicator attributes might include an alphanumeric string representing a value, one of two foreground and background color combinations, whether it is blinking or not blinking, and/or whether it is not visible at all. Such a video screen is energized according to a file of non-text, i.e., hexadecimal code, display generation data. A system such as the AUTOPLEX® MCRT monitoring system can be described as a dedicated non-text-variable-output system.
To derive meaning from such a video screen, an operator must be familiar with the predefined associations. Otherwise, the video screen appears merely to be an array of variously-colored alphanumeric strings, some of which might be blinking.
Once an operator is familiar with such a video screen, he can submit (among other things) a Status Display Page (SDP) command to the interface to request information about a particular parameter or large system configuration. Then, the operator watches the screen until the requested array of information is displayed. Using his knowledge of the predefined associations for the requested screen, the operator looks to the region that acts as an indicator for the parameter. In that region, the operator observes the alphanumeric string, the combinations of colors and whether or not the combination is blinking, or whether the region is totally blank. In his mind, the operator translates the attributes of the indicator into the characteristics of the indicator. Usually, the characteristics of the indicator are the alphanumeric string and the state, the state being represented by the combination of colors.
It is burdensome to the operator to have to perform this translation. Plus, it is prone to error if the operator has less than perfect recall of the predefined associations and/or attribute/characteristic relationships. A typical screen for the SDP command has about 20–30 indicators and there are over 100 screens that can be requested with the SDP command. In addition, the color relationships for an indicator on an SDP screen can change from one software release of the AUTOPLEX® MCRT monitoring system to the next. Thus, there is a great deal of information that an operator must remember about all of the SDP commands.
Sometimes, an operator will change a parameter in the system. There might be a delay between when the operator requests the change and when it takes effect. An operator can confirm that the change has taken effect by monitoring an indicator on an SDP screen. If there is a delay in the change taking effect, then the operator must watch the video screen until the attributes of the corresponding indicator change. Until that change takes effect, the operator is held captive by the video screen.
Suppose a parameter is critical to the operation of a component of the wireless telephony system. An operator might be assigned to verify that parameter's state is always acceptable. In theory, this requires the operator to never avert his eyes from the screen. If the appearance of the indicator changes, the operator must recognize the change in appearance and respond accordingly. Again, the operator is held captive by the video screen.
It is desired to free the operator of the AUTOPLEX® MCRT monitoring system from the captivity represented by not being able to avert his eyes from the video screen generated in response to the SDP command, as well as to liberate operators of other similar dedicated non-text-variable-output systems. One way to do this is to rewrite the software for the system so that the characteristics of the parameters are provided in the form of text variables which can be displayed and manipulated, and not merely in the form of a file of non-text (hexadecimal code) display generation data. However, such large systems are typically mature products for which research and development efforts have been greatly diminished. This makes such a rewrite prohibitively expensive to undertake.